Authors

BMJ Open Respiratory Research is an open access peer-reviewed journal dedicated exclusively to publishing respiratory and critical care medicine research. The journal aims to provide rapid publication of research across a range of medical disciplines and therapeutic areas in respiratory medicine, through a continuous publication model. All submissions are subject to external peer review.

BMJ Open Respiratory Research will not consider for publication any study partly or wholly funded by the tobacco industry, as explained here.

Articles are published under a Creative Commons licence to facilitate reuse of the content and authors retain copyright; please refer to the BMJ Open Respiratory Research Copyright Licence Statement.

Tobacco industry funded work

BMJ Open Respiratory Research will not consider for publication papers reporting work funded, in whole or in part, by a tobacco company or tobacco industry organization. Nor will the journal consider papers by authors who accept tobacco industry funding, including funding for research costs, for all or part of any author’s salary, or other forms of personal remuneration. For further information, please read this editorial giving the reasoning behind the journal’s policy. Failure to declare competing interests at submission, or when an article is commissioned, can result in immediate rejection of the paper. If a competing interest comes to light after publication, BMJ Open Respiratory Researchwill issue a formal correction to or retraction of the whole paper, as appropriate.

Article publishing charges

BMJ Open Respiratory Research is an open access journal and levies an Article Publishing Charge (APC) of 1,700 GBP (exclusive of VAT for UK and EU authors). Charges for publishing a study protocol are 1000 GBP. There are no submission, colour or page charges.

No payment information is requested before an article is accepted, so the ability to pay cannot affect editorial decisions. Accepted articles will not be published until payment has been received. BMJ does not refund APCs once paid.

There is a 25% discount for articles where the corresponding author is a British Thoracic Society member or where the corresponding author has reviewed for BMJ Open Respiratory Research within the previous 12 months. These discounts cannot be combined.

For more information on open access, funder compliance, discounts and waivers please refer to the BMJ Author Hub open access page.

Manuscript transfer

BMJ and the British Thoracic Society have a facility for transferring manuscripts among their respiratory journals. Authors submitting to the flagship journal Thorax can choose BMJ Open Respiratory Researchas an ‘alternate journal.

Once authors agree for their manuscript to be transferred to another BMJ journal, all versions of the manuscript, any supplementary files and peer review comments will automatically be transferred on the author’s behalf. Please note that there is no guarantee of acceptance. Contact the editorial team for more information or assistance.

Submission guidelines

Please review the below article type specifications including the required article lengths, illustrations, table limits and reference counts. The word count excludes the title page, abstract, tables, acknowledgements, contributions and references. Manuscripts should be as succinct as possible.

For further support when making your submission please refer to the resources available on the BMJ Author Hub. Here you can also find general formatting guidelines across BMJ and a formatting checklist.

Original Research

Original Research should follow the basic structure of Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, References, and tables and figures as appropriate.

Word count: up to 4,000Abstract: up to 300Tables/illustrations: up to 5References: up to 100

Protocol

Protocols should report planned or ongoing studies. If data collection is complete, we will not consider the manuscript. BMJ Open Respiratory Research will consider for publication protocols for any study design, including observational studies and systematic reviews. More information on protocols can be found on the BMJ Author Hub.

Protocols should follow the following structure:Title: This should include the specific study type, e.g. randomised controlled trial.

Abstract: This should be structured with the following sections. Introduction; Methods and analysis; Ethics and dissemination. Registration details should be included as a final section, if appropriate.

Introduction: Explain the rationale for the study and what evidence gap it may fill. Appropriate previous literature should be referenced, including relevant systematic reviews.

Methods and Analysis: Provide a full description of the study design, including the following. How the sample will be selected; interventions to be measured; the sample size calculation (drawing on previous literature) with an estimate of how many participants will be needed for the primary outcome to be statistically, clinically and/or politically significant; what outcomes will be measured, when and how; a data analysis plan.

Ethics and Dissemination: Ethical and safety considerations and any dissemination plan (publications, data deposition and curation) should be covered here.

References: State any references used.

Authors’ Contributions: State how each author was involved in writing the protocol.

Funding Statement: Preferably worded as follows. Either: ‘This work was supported by [name of funder] grant number [xxx]’ or ‘This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors’.

Competing Interests Statement: State any competing interests.

Review

Reviews will address any aspect of respiratory or critical care medicine. Prior discussion with the Editor is recommended.

Word count: up to 3,000Abstract: up to 200Tables/illustrations: up to 5References: up to 100

Supplements

The BMJ Publishing Group journals are willing to consider publishing supplements to regular issues. Supplement proposals may be made at the request of:

The journal editor, an editorial board member or a learned society may wish to organise a meeting, sponsorship may be sought and the proceedings published as a supplement.

The journal editor, editorial board member or learned society may wish to commission a supplement on a particular theme or topic. Again, sponsorship may be sought.

The BMJPG itself may have proposals for supplements where sponsorship may be necessary.

A sponsoring organisation, often a pharmaceutical company or a charitable foundation, that wishes to arrange a meeting, the proceedings of which will be published as a supplement.

In all cases, it is vital that the journal’s integrity, independence and academic reputation is not compromised in any way.